President of the Church
Some smaller denominations, such as the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), reject the office as an unscriptural creation.
However, it was still unclear whether Smith and Cowdery's calling as apostles gave them superior authority than that of other high priests.
[17] The Council determined that Joseph Smith had "acted in every respect in an honorable and proper manner with all monies and properties entrusted to his charge.
"[21] In 1836, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, approximately one year after Smith organized the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he instructed that the members of the First Presidency and the apostles should also be accepted by the church as prophets, seers, and revelators: I made a short address, and called upon the several quorums, and all the congregation of Saints, to acknowledge the Presidency as Prophets and Seers and uphold them by their prayers.
I then called upon the quorums and congregation of Saints, to acknowledge the Twelve, who were present, as Prophets, Seers, Revelators, and special witnesses to all the nations of the earth holding the keys of the kingdom, to unlock it, or cause it to be done among them, and uphold them by their prayers.
Additionally, the counselors in the First Presidency and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are sustained by the membership as "prophets, seers, and revelators".
The procedure of sustaining is repeated in local congregations of the LDS Church several times per year at stake, district, ward, or branch conferences.
In 1995, Wallace B. Smith broke with the precedent of lineal succession by naming W. Grant McMurray as his successor.
In November 2004, McMurray resigned from the office of Prophet-President without naming a successor, citing medical and personal issues.
The First Presidency, composed of McMurray's two counselors, continued to function as the church's chief executive council.
Delegates elected to a special World Conference of the church approved Veazey and he was ordained as the Prophet–President on June 3, 2005.
The Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continued to believe in the lineal succession through the Jewish Laws of Inheritance.
As such, the president of the Remnant Church following its formation, Frederick Niels Larsen, was a direct descendant (maternal 2nd great-grandson) of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Following LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball's 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, extending the right of ordination to black African males in perceived contradiction to the teachings of Brigham Young and other early LDS leaders, the fundamentalists in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, began to regard their parent organization as a "complete Gentile sectarian church."
In 1991, Rulon Jeffs, by that time sole surviving member of the Priesthood Council and thus Prophet of the group, incorporated his followers into "the Corporation of the President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" or FLDS Church, with himself as president.
Despite the younger Jeffs' resignation from the Presidency in 2011 following his imprisonment for child sexual assault, and a brief tenure by Wendell Loy Nielsen as President of the Church's corporate assets, most FLDS members continue to regard Jeffs as a prophet.
